Contest: Win all 5 of New Order’s classic ’80s albums on vinyl from Rhino Records

To celebrate next week’s release of New Order’s Lost Sirens mini-album — which will be issued digitally here in the U.S. beginning Tuesday — the good folks at Rhino Records have gone analog, hooking us up with a set of all five of the band’s classic ’80s albums on vinyl to give away to one lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs reader.

The winner, who must reside in the U.S. (sorry, that’s Rhino’s rule), will get vinyl copies of:

TO ENTER: Simply drop a comment at the bottom of this post naming your favorite absolute New Order album, and give us a few words on why you think it’s such a great record.

RULES: This contest is open to U.S. residents only and we’ll take entries until 12 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 18. After that point, we’ll select one winner at random and contact him or her via e-mail — so please remember to use legit addresses when you enter. And if the winner doesn’t respond after one full week, we’ll select a new one. One entry per person, please.

UPDATE 1/18/13: The contest is now closed, and the winner will be contacted via e-mail. Thank you everybody for entering, and sharing your thoughts and memories about New Order.

I first fell in love with New Order in 1987 when Substance was released and “True Faith” was getting so much airplay. And though I still love that collection, the one record I still go back to over and over again is “Movement”. It might be their only record that shows no age; a true timeless classic.

Low-Life! The most varied album and solid start to finish – just think how different Love Vigilantes, Perfect Kiss, Elegia, all sound! Can’t forget the angst of Sunrise or Sub-culture either. First album I got after hearing Substance, I still play it constantly (the CD is pretty much permanently in my car) All 5 albums on vinyl would be a heck of a birthday present too as today’s my birthday. :) I have lots of New Order on vinyl but it’s mostly the singles.

Low-life was side A on a cassette given to me by a friend in 1985 or so to introduce me to some new music. (The Cure’s The Head On The Door was the flip). It may not have been my absolute musical ground zero, but everything changed nonetheless…

i’d have to say power, corruption and lies… i realize just how great it is every time i hear someone else cover a song from it (joe pernice, velocity girl, destroyer, and masters of the hemisphere come to mind immediately).

Brotherhood for sure. The title of this album is exactly what was made for me in high school. With Paradise, Weirdo, and Bizarre Love Triangle .. these songs are what I play to remind me of the days when times with friends was awesome.

It’s a tough call, but I’m going to say Movement. It echoes their time in Joy Division with the band finding its voice in the emotional ride that followed. It’s an interesting transitional record that demonstrates the group’s desire to push onward while finding inspiration from the past. It is definitely one of my favorite records from the 80’s.

Low-Life. Every track was performed live and forged in front of their fans lucky enough ti see them play from the winter of 1983 (Sooner Than You Think ) to January 1985. Bernard’s vocals really came to life. Musically they were on top of their game.

Low-Life. Great album from start to finish. Love Vigilantes and This Time of Night are two very underrated New Order songs, and I’ve always been fascinated with the sampling/effects used in The Perfect Kiss. I can honestly say it’s my favorite song that samples ribbiting frogs. I would have loved to been in the room when someone suggested it during the recording — “hey this song is good, but you know what would make it even better? Frogs.” Genius.

I like all of them for different reasons but I probably have the most memories of listening to Brotherhood while I’d deliver newspapers. Everything seemed perfect in the world as I listened to it on my early cassette WalkMan.

Although Substance is my favorite release, Power, Corruption, & Lies is my favorite true album. Bridges the gap between the past and the future quite nicely. The cover art of PC&L is fantastic, as well.

New Order Substance, only because it has the best versions of all the singles. Substance is the first New Order record to list Ceremony, which is my favorite song by the band. The guitar builds slowly, and the drums kick in, and then the bass line… the perfect bass line, becomes an anthem of loss and despair. Also on this album we find an instrumental version of Thieves like us. The song begins with a door knock and Bernard saying simply, “come in.” It’s within this song that I am reminded of my youth and of afternoons of watching the movie Pretty in Pink, which used this sample in their movie. Molly Ringlwald’s character is making her dress for the prom, and I’ve always thought that if it wasn’t for New Order playing in the background, she never would have found her courage to move forward. There are many songs that I love on this album, another would be bizarre love triangle with a nearly 2 minute introduction… and it needs to be a 2 minute intro because the song is magical. Towards the end of the song we hear what New Order is truly best at: joyful melancholy. The lyrics on their own could drive you to tears, but thank God there is a synthesizer and a drum beat keeping us on our feet.

Low-Life was the soundtrack to my freshman year in college. New Order was a benchmark of cool at the time, and Low-Life was danceable, too. I met friends, discovered freedom, and experienced much joy to that album. I still spin vinyl and would love to replace my cassette tapes!

Movement – this has to be the most influential album of the early 80s, as well as for me. Overcoming the loss of Ian, they carried on and became musical legends. I would place Movement in the Top 5 of my favorite albums of all time.

Movement! Discovering that sound when I was a kid was like an epiphany. It led me to search for better music than what was being fed to me on the radio. That’s a huge thing for any music fan, if you think about it. Plus, the album cover remains one of my all-time favorites.

Lowlife. I discovered New Order when the Substance collection was released and fell in love. I immediately wanted more and decided to start backwards, in order. Due to the fact that my local record store didn’t have a copy of Brotherhood, I landed on Lowlife and it is still one of my all time favorite albums, hands down

Low-Life. Easily my favorite New Order album. It’s the one I was introduced to the band through, and it captures the move from post-punk to a dancier sound in an all inclusive manner. Love Vigilantes will always be my favorite song of theirs. All hail Low-Life!

Movement is my favorite. I don’t know that I’d say its better than the others, but it is the first one I heard and it struck a particular chord in me. It was different from EVERYTHING else I was listening to at the time. I listened to it ceaselessly for weeks. It became part of my musical DNA.

Low-life. Hands down. It had everything that Power, Corruption & Lies had – rock (Sunrise), proto indie-pop (Love Vigilantes), stellar dance tracks (Perfect Kiss, Sub-Culture)- but done more confidently. The sound was sleek, experimental and surprisingly accessible at the same time. The The made an even bigger step with their Infected album the next year but New Order got there first with “Sub-culture.” All that aside, Low-life was a great example of the tension between pop and underground sounds that resulted in so much great mid-Eighties music, especially in the U.K. Only the Talking Heads were operating at this level from the U.S. at that time.

brotherhood, though all of their 80s work is terrific. time will out that new order were at least as important as pixies, sonic youth, replacements, the cure or any other band of that era. brotherhood is grand from start to finish, and the whole thing snaps together from the thwack at the start to the run-off scratching at the end. g-d save new order.

Low-life. It was the first album I heard by them thanks to my cool older brother and it kicked off a life time love of their music. But tell me this- was I the only one who thought Stephen Morris was the lead singer because it was his picture on the cover?

Movement- I “moved” from the Joy Division realm with some trepidity wondering how the band would continue after 1980’s events. This LP has a sense of falling into a dream. Electronics bleeps and pangs float in space. And it’s an unlit space, at that. Sumner’s voice is like listening to the storyteller while coming out of anesthesia. I don’t think anyone has made an album remotely like this one, and they certainly moved away from it quickly into more danceable fair. But I’ll never loose the strange quality it had when I dropped it on the turntable back in 1981. It’s one of my desert island records. Plus the quality of the coverstock, graphics and B-Music label all increased the sense of something very different. It’s transitional, to be sure, and contrasts greatly from everything that happened to them after Blue Monday came out.

Very difficult task to pick one as an outright favorite. But, if you twist my arm, I would have to say Power, Corruption & Lies. What a leap forward for the band.(However, Ask me again in 5 minutes and I’ll most likely say Low-life or Technique…)

My vote is for “Republic”. I remember hearing “Regret” for the first time, it was almost life-changing. Not sure why but I wasn’t into New Order before hearing that record. So on that day I made a discovery for myself, and ended up getting New Order’s entire catalog along with many singles and becoming a huge fan.

Power Corruption & Lies. Such a haunting and heavy and yet spare and beautiful album all at once. The material featured prominently in their recent US tour and felt as fresh as anything out there today. Your Silent Face is such a gorgeous piece.

Oh my, so many GREAT New Orders albums! NO continue to be a great act and I love everything they have put out. My favorite is Technique. Love that CD but it’s really hard to choose one. Would love to win the contest.

My fave New Order album is Substance 1987 as it is brings together many of my fave New Order songs of the eighties in one collection. 1987 was the year I ran a bus tour to see New Order, Echo and The Bunnymen and Gene Loves Jezebel at an outdoor amphitheater near Detroit.

Lowlife because of Jonathan Demme’s Love Vigilantes video, Peter Saville’s sleeve (with that beautiful paper wrap, which was the only place that revealed the band’s name), and, of course, because of New Order’s incredible music.

Low-Life is my favorite. From the opening of “Love Vigilantes”, you knew you were in for a great experience. “The Perfect Kiss” is among their best tracks of all time as well. It’s such a solid album from start to finish. An absolute classic!

For me, it’s a tie between Substance Power, Corruption and Lies. Substance (though not an original album) for the great 12″ versions and edits, plus “True Faith” – one of my absolute favorite songs, ever.
Power, Corruption and Lies is with “Age of Consent”, “The Village” and “586”…”Your Silent Face”…it’s just a great record – with great artwork, in my opinion.

I can’t help but be drawn to Movement, bridging the 2 sounds. I have always liked most band’s sophomoric efforts, when the exploration is still palpable. I imagine it must be the most difficult album for the band to revisit.

Lowlife has to be my favorite album of all time. Its the first album I had purchased of new order I would listen to this album practical all the time. the sounds were embedded in my mind constantly playing in my head. From start to finish it is a masterpiece. I was hooked and I had to get the rest of their albums.

Low life as to be my favorite album of all time. Its the first album I had purchased of new order I would listen to this album practical all the time. the sounds were embedded in my mind constantly playing in my head. From start to finish it is a masterpiece. I was hooked and I had to get the rest of their albums.

“Movement”, without a doubt, is New Order’s greatest album. They started to create their new sound while still maintaining a hint of Joy Division’s genius. Plus, the album artwork is amazing. Also, to hear Peter Hook sing on”Dreams Never End” is just beautiful.

Power, Corruption & Lies. Age of Consent was the song that really turned me on to New Order. Listened to that song before every soccer game. Played it in every band I was in. The whole album played a pivotal role in my appreciation of music. Absolute classic.

I first fell in love with the flexi disc of Joy Division
and when the band became New Order- I was ready for it. I got many
LPs and had a college radio show that played the LPs. Brotherhood
has been the LP I played the most and side two with All Night Long
and the classic Bizarre Love Triangle was played the most. New
Order has influenced so many artists since then – One of my
favorites was Divine who actually took ( ripped off) Blue Monday
and turned it into the song Love Reaction. Many of my old vinyl LPs
has gone aways– old loves stealing them as they left. Would love
for this collection to rekindle my memories.

How can you choose just ONE? — Can I please have at least
a tie vote? (1.) ‘Power, Corruption, and Lies’, which could win
with its fantastic title and artwork alone! The icing on the cake
for the American versions of the cassette/CD editions and the
Collector’s Edition later, would be the inclusion of the historic
tracks “Blue Monday” and “The Beach”! — (2.) But I would then have
to consider all the music contained on ‘Lowlife’, which could have
easily been the soundtrack for my life in the 80’s and early
90’s!

My favorite New Order album is definitely Technique, which
I bought when it came out when I was fourteen years old. It’s a
solid album start to finish and has some of their best songs. It’s
the album I come back to the most!

Power, corruption and lies is my all time favorite New
Order release due to the combination of brilliant artwork, title,
tracks and year of release. It was the summer of my 17th year when
this creative blast from NO dropped.

Low-Life. The thing about Low Life for me is that I feel it’s the first record that New Order finally shed all of it’s Joy Division roots and became their own band. Both Movement and Power, Corruption and Lies still had elements of Joy Division running through it. Low Life was all about New Order…

Power, Corruption & Lies – This cassette tape
(which had Blue Monday and The Beach on it) was my first NO album
and seemed to always be in my car when I was younger and will
always have a special place in my life.

Low-Life, which features my absolute favorite New Order
song, Elegia. Thank you for putting this contest on, thank you to
Rhino for making the LPs available, and thank you a second time for
reminding me I haven’t listened to New Order in a while. Putting on
Low-Life now…

Lowlife, any album with “The Perfect Kiss” and “Vigilante”
(two of my favorite tracks ever), although I have a special place
in my heart for “Shellshock” even tho it was never on a New Order
album per se – but the first time I heard it in “Pretty in Pink” in
1986, it was all over. Such an amazing band!

Power, Corruption and Lies. The sound of their previous
album Movement still remained under shadow of Joy Division. PCL is
where they let go the ghost of Ian Curtis and really became New
Order. An album that I have listened to consistently since high
school – in the mid 80s :)

Power, Corruption and Lies is my favorite. “Blue Monday”
changed my life, and that record captures New Order during an
inventive, transformative time. The right balance of post-Joy
Division gloom and their future disco-rock. Incredibly
influential.

1985’s LOW-LIFE for sure. Released the year I graduated
from high school, I instantly fell in love with this album. From
“Love Vigilantes” (an incredible song about war and loss) to
outstanding dance songs like “The Perfect Kiss” and “Sub-Culture”
to what may be the most brilliant instrumental of all-time
(“Eligia”). I’ll always love this record.

They are all my favorite, hence my desire in this contest.
;) But if I had to choose, I’d go with Power, Corruption &
Lies. For me, it was the first New Order album, perhaps because it
was my first New Order album?

Low-Life. Simply on balance, it has the greatest number of my favorite songs than any other New Order album. Which is not to say that there aren’t New Order songs i like more than those on Low-Life, just that Low-Life is almost all killer. And I’m not even counting the dubious Perfect Kiss edit!

“Movement” remains the sentimental favorite. Takes me back to a time when we were still mourning Ian who committed suicide just weeks before we’d be able to see Joy Division in person. Seeing New Order tour for this record was a bit of a memorial.

Tough choice to be sure, but this one gets my vote because it was my first introduction to the band. It perfectly encapsulates everything that music meant to me when I was young: An escape to a different life, hope, and a promise that there was something else beyond my dreary existence. It contains 3 of my favorite NO tracks: Age of Consent, The Village, and Your Silent Face. And the cover is as absolutely gorgeous as the music.

I’m so torn. I love them all. Jeez. I’d have to say low life. It has truly great memories attached to it and the songs are haunting and incredible. The Perfect Kiss is one of the greatest tracks of all time. Unlike many others, I really do love their last studio release Waiting for the Sirens Call. New Order always have and always will be my favorite artists of all time.

Technique. Despite its outdated sonic effects, it stood the test of time. The melodies, lyrics, the whole mood of the record – all are still there and still evoke emotions. Yes, it’s a long way from Movement (my 2nd favorite album), but this is why I love that band.

Power Corruption and Lies – as the result of some resemblance of Joy Division with the outbreak of an emerging New Order. Plus the LP artwork/cover basically correlates completely perfect with the music.

Brotherhood. I go back and forth between this album and Technique, but Paradise, Weirdo, and As It Is When It Was rank high in my list of favorite New Order tracks. The end of the album is perfect, too.. *SCRRRRAAAAAAAAAATCH* *SKIP* DONE!

Definitely Power, Corruption & Lies. Such an amazing record with a new New Order edge that was not quite developed on Brotherhood, and fully developed by the time Low Life came out. Additionally, the live shows from that era were equally amazing.

My vote is for Low Life. 13 year old me used to listen to Sub-Culture over and over and over again. For some reason, the lyrics (ex: “I like walking in the park when it gets late at night”) somehow became my moody teenage mantra.

Technique — its one of the few records that I bought multipule times. I wore out the cassette 2x before I bought a cd, then last year bought the re issue. So many timeless songs on there. Vanishing Point still sees my work out rotations.

My favorite New Order album is, by far, Movement! It is such a window of a time period that revealed the band at a crossroads. Not any band, and not even “New Order” per se… but Joy Division. The raw emotion was not only captured in the music and lyrics, but in the space between. Each voice put to tape had it’s own space and time. The mix was perfect. It stands up there with Unknown Pleasures. Revealing that in the darkness, lies beauty… literally.
Cheers!

favorite New Order album?… it’s tough to choose. I like them all, but I have to say my favorite is the severely underrated and often ignored Get Ready. It’s guitar-based and a good solid record through and through, unlike the other albums which are a bit patchy.

Substance – what a sick compilation of amazing singles. Who among us didn’t wear that cassette (and later CD) out? Yes – it doesn’t really count as a true album, but if you were headed to Mars and could only take one NO album with, don’t kid yourself – it would be this one.

Power Curruption & Lies – The first vision and truw blossoming of the true NO that we would all come to know and love. Streaching from 500 mile hour, full throttle anthem of Age of Consent to the stark, shimmery beauty of Leave me Alone and Your Silent Face and the beautiful cover art by Peter Saville. And all that’s not even including the B-sides, 12 inch singles and EPs that came out of this same era (Confusion, Blue Monday, Thieves Like US)!!!

Power, Corruption & Lies……for sure. “Blue Monday” was an exceptional club song. Also, it gave me the opportunity to make life long friends who have allowed me to work together with them in the Rock’n Roll merchandising business. And we proudly represent New Order Now….for merchandise on-line as well as tour with them on their last US Tour. Great music and fabulous people!!!!!

Low-life, because it’s unexpected and holds the charm of sounding more so like a live recording, you could almost see the smirk on Barney’s face recording the vocals, and as Craig Small said, theres Sunrise

Low-Life. I was really into Joy Division during the early eighties and was really sad and dissapointed when Ian had commited sucide just before their U.S. Tour. Wasn’t really sure about Bernie taking the reigns on what would become New Order as of yet. I heard their song “Perfect Kiss” off Low-Life on the radio and something about that song called to me. Coincidently, when I went to purchase the 12″ single for “Perfect Kiss”, there were some printings that had the word “Alex” on the bottom of the sleeve. Not sure what that meant but thought it was a calling for me to give the band a shot. Loved them ever since.

Low-life became the background music of a very important time in my life … it reminds me of my youth, my curiosity in the unknown, and my desire to do the complete opposite of what my parents wanted me to do. :)

Substance. I know it is a compilation.. but it was my first exposure to New Order. At the time I was into hair-metal bands (and other stuff that has long since come and gone). I heard a few New Order songs from a friend and I was hooked. It was a new musical journey for me, and I still listen to Substance from start to finish on a regular basis today. Brings back many fond memories from many eras of my life!

Power, Corruption and Lies, followed closely by Low-Life and Technique. Just how they were able to pull it off embodies the NO ethos at its finest – no Martin Hannett for the first time, Bernard pushed forward, not yet attempting to write pop songs just for the sake of it, and unafraid to experiment.

All 5 are brilliant albums so it’s hard to pick one. But if I was going to be sent to a deserted island and could only take one with me, it would probably be Brotherhood. All five would hold up well to repeated plays but Brotherhood has the widest range of the five. But there’s not a bad album in the bunch!

Really a tough call! I love each of them for different reasons but in the end I have to go with Power Corruption and Lies. This is the sound of New Order coming into their own. They’d moved past the tragedy of Ian Curtis’ death and mourned it with Movement – when Age of Consent kicks in it’s like nothing else. I had been impressed with the singles leading up to it’s release but p.c.a.l. was pure magic.

Although I love each album, including Get Ready and Waiting for the Sirens Call, Technique is my all time favorite. Decades worth of memories tied up in it and hearing any of the tracks instantly and vividly transports me back to a significant moment in my life that was soundtracked by the 9 perfect tracks on the LP.

Power, Corruption & Lies is my favorite New Order album. One of the many things that make it great is how distinctive and catchy every instrument is on every song. You might find yourself, without effort, for any of the songs, humming the bass line while tapping out the drums while singing the lyrics, guitar, and keys in your head (or trying to do them all at once out loud)–because every element of every song sticks with you. The album is that infectious.

Man, what at a tough call on this one! PCL spent a lot of time on my turntable, Brotherhood was so very anticipated when i had my first record store job, we couldn’t wait to get it in and blare it in the store. But Movement, there was so much to it that was brought with it from the time of Joy Division. To carry on after such a tragedy, and feel like Ian Curtis was standing over them, urging them to continue. The spirit permeated the record. The sense of darkness, but the feeling of hope. Bernard stepping up to take over the vocals. The bigger presence of the keyboards without losing the heavy bass lines. I don’t think many bands have had a run of album after album of such great material.

Tough call. I would say movement because its so close in sound to joy division. But I have to go with Technique. High school nostalgia coupled with lyrics that are resonating so much through a breakup after 10 years together.

Brotherhood – Although all the albums are great, I have a special connection with Brotherhood. It’s the album that made me fall in love with New Order and was one of my most played albums throughout my college years!

Power, Corruption, and Lies – This was the first album I ever heard of New Order, and everytime I listen to it, it still gives me that strange sensation of uniqueness that I felt when I first listened to it, which is why this album is so special for me.

Love all their albums, but Technique hit me at he right time. It’s the soundtrack of my high school days. Lots of great memories of listening to that record with my friends and seeing New Order live in concert for the first time.

Brotherhood is my personal favorite. Everyone has that one album that pinpoints a time in our lives that we will remember forever. Brotherhood is that album for me. Great times, Great memories, and great friends. The Pinnacle!

Very tough choice. Power, Corruption and Lies. Still has the moodiness of Joy Division yet shows glimpses of the dance floor progression they would have with Blue Monday. Plus it has “Your Silent Face”, my all-time fav New Order track. :D

Technique was their pinnacle album at the close of the 80’s. It is very polished and a great listen from start to finish. They were at their commercial and artistic peak at this time. I remember seeing them on this tour at Red Rocks in summer 89.

So hard to choose, but as of past few years I have to say ‘Power, Corruption, and Lies’. ‘Leave Me Alone’ has become my favorite N.O. song, the bass line on ‘Age of Consent’ still kills and the oceanic keyboards on ‘Your Silent Face’ still sounds contemporary. They were amazing on their recent tour!

My fave album is Power, Corruption & Lies. It’s such an innovative album in many fronts. It’s the first album where New Order consolidates their own voice and leave behind their Joy Division shadow. The artwork is still amazing to this day. And the title says it all, all about the ones who rule over us all.

I adore Technique simply because it has a good mix of guitar and techno numbers. Dream Attack, Vanishing Point, both favorites. I still put on Round & Round in the car, one of my favorite thumper/ stompers to get me in a good mood!

Low-Life – This is such a tough call, but mainly because this album was the soundtrack to my teen years, especially the song Sub-culture. This, I believe, best represents New Order when they were at their artistic peak.

Technique – because it was the first New Order LP that grabbed me, and because it was 1989, the same year so many of my favorite albums arrived (plenty of them could be on this website!). It’s just my favorite New Order combination of wild electronic pop with some bass guitar. It never matters how many times I listened to this LP in my life, and especially the track “Fine Time”… I think “Fine Time” is one of the single best electronic pop tracks ever. There, I said it.

Such a tough call but I’d say Power, Corruption and Lies. I’ve worn that album out on vinyl, cassette and CD but still brilliant 30 years on. Played it all the time on WDCR…Can’t wait to hear New Order material this week. Hook me up Rhino and we’ll have a listening party on my new turntable ;)

There is something to love about all of New Order’s albums. I keep returning to Technique the most. Round and Round is great. Fine Time is mysterious and dark, yet oddly accessible. The goat sounds at the end are haunting. The song’s video perfectly matches the song. Every song is a winner and the driving beats never stop. Vanishing Point is magnificent. The whole band were at the top of their game, and Bernard finally sounds comfortable with his singing voice. Grade = A.

Their best album has to be “Power, Corruption and Lies”. It took me months to de-code the colour blocks on the sleeve and match it with the Blue Monday sleeve coding. Plus in the song “Your Silent Face” Barney sings “You caught me at a bad time… so why don’t you piss off.” Priceless.

I love everything by New Order, but Low Life is definitely my favorite album. The whole album is just perfect from start to finish. To me, Low Life was the album that really brought everything together; it’s flawless. The album has a certain level of diversity, with very unique tracks (Love Vigilantes, Perfect Kiss, & Elegia) that are still very cohesive within the album as a whole. I LOVE it. :-)

Movement. The perfect mix of New Order with fleeting traces of Joy Division as they slowly evolved into a more pop sounding group. Everything afterward was excellent but not as dark as their merging years.

Movement, it’s a great mix of the post-punk sound of Joy Division and a sneak peak of the synth sound New Order was going to adapt. Not to mention the two tracks written as Joy Division, but appear here as New Order are amazing.

Power, Corruption & Lies is my favorite. I love all New Order albums but this one never fails me. It never gets old or tiresome and encapsulates a signature sound that can be imitated but never duplicated.

BROTHERHOOD. I’ve always loved bands that mixed guitars/bass/drums with keyboards/synths (e.g. the Cure, NIN, the Faint). On Brotherhood, N.O. actually split the album into a guitar side (side A) and a synth side (side B), showing their talent and versatility with both types of these sounds. It’s like they were saying, “Yeah, we can do both of these sounds. Separately. Really well.” You have to respect that.

Lowlife is my fave, even though for some crazy reason its not on my ipod & all of their other albums are(scratches head). Why is it great? “This Time of Night”, “Elegia” and of course “The Perfect Kiss.” But I’d love to have Movement on vinyl! Did I mention I have 3 working turntables… although only 2 are hooked up.

Brotherhood! Bizarre Love Triangle is brilliant and takes me back to when I used to purchase all albums on vinyl! I’m collecting again and would LOVE to own New Order complete set above on vinyl for my collection!

Low Life. From the unconventional sound (for New Order) of Love Vigilantes, to the perfection that is the 12″ of The Perfect Kiss, to the absolute haunting beauty of Elegia, it’s just an amazing album all the way through.

Power, Corruption & Lies. Introduced me to New Order’s killer music from the first track “Age Of Consent”. The bonus tracks on the collector’s CD edition have more to love, especially the 12″ single version of Blue Monday!

I see danger danger danger …. Power, Corruption & Lies. Because it’s just about flawless from start to finish. It has a very synthetic sound and yet conveys such emotion, and is filled with brilliant songwriting that doesn’t quite resemble anything that came before and nothing since. And it contains Blue Monday, Age of Consent, and Your Silent Face.

Well…it’s like asking, which extremity of my body I prefer…I like them all! ;-) But if my life depended on it and I was stranded on an Island with and LP player…I would choose Technique. Why? Well, I was 18 years of age and beginning life with such optimism and remembering buying that Cassette and immersing myself in listening to those melodies in my 1971 Dodge Colt and in my bedroom Hi-Fi…well, that was life at it’s best! :-)

My favourite New Order album has to be Brotherhood. Maybe it’s cliche, but I listened to Bizarre Love Triangle & 1963 almost nightly as a kid. The somber lyrics combined with the dancer beats and hooky’s bass did it for me unlike any song before. It really made an impact in my life, probably the biggest, aside from my parents. It is the reason why I am into music as much as I am, it is the reason why I want to make music, it’s the reason why I spend nights and nights trying to contemplate music and for that I am forever indebted to New Order and Ian for shaping me to be who I am today…Even if I am really just another miserable meatbag.

For me it’s Brotherhood. It’s a bit cliché but Bizarre Love Triangle & 1963 kept me dancing nightly as a kid. The dancey beats combined with somber lyrics and Hooky’s basslines really did it for me. It really made an impact on my life, probably the biggest (aside from my parents of course). It’s the reason why I’m into music as much as I am. It’s the reason why I want to make music, it’s the reason why I spend nights trying to consume as much music as I can, it’s the reason why Inhave headaches trying to contemplate songmeanings. And for that it’s the reason why I’m forever indebted to New Order and Ian for shaping me to be who I am today…Even if all I am is just another miserable meatbag. Happy Tuesday!

Republic- just because at the time when “Regret” came out, it was playing a lot on the radio and ironically it was New Order when I found out who wrote the song. It became an everlasting relationship with the band and the rest is history!

Low-Life- Perfect Kiss makes the all-time desert island mix. The whole album showcases the understated range of the band, the incredible guitar crunch of Sunrise folllowed gorgeously by Elegia–plus it got me through some rough times in life

My first reaction is Low Life because it was my introduction and is a brilliant record. But, more than 20 years later I keep coming back to Technique. I was “meh” about it when it came out, but it is a solid beautiful album.

“Power, Corruption & Lies” was the album that separated New Order from the Joy Division past and defined the future path. It’s solid from start to finish. The classic Saville sleeve with the color coding drew you in with the mystery and the digital appearance over the Fantin LaTour painting referenced the digital and analog mix to the band as they began to incorporate sequencing and more broad use of synth. “Leave Me Alone” is great classic, simple songwriting with a great hook and balance. “Ultraviolence…” just thinking about this album now I have to go listen to it again for the millionth time!

Technique is my favorite. It’s the one New Order record that sounds truly unique and has the ‘glue’ that makes it sound more like a record than a collection of singles…. Ahead of it’s time and holds up incredibly well.

Not gonna lie: Substance. Yes, I know, it’s a collection of 12 inch cuts. But these are arguably the best 12 inch dance records released from the post punk movement. It’s also how I really got into the band.

Power, Corruption, & Lies remains the high water mark for New Order. It represents the moment when they fully shook off the ghost of Ian Curtis & Joy Division and did so in a way that simply felt like a natural progression. The repercussions of their music making at that time are still being felt in both the Indie and dance worlds. They’d invented the future without really knowing it.

My favorite is definately “Movement”! It is every bit as epic as “Power Corruption and Lies” yet is the more underrated of the two. It has the best intro track “Dreams never end” which is sung by PETER HOOK. Peter Hook does a very good Ian Curtis impersonation. The Album ends with the epic tribal drumming of Stephen Morris on “Denial”. New Order came very close to the sound they made on Joy Division’s closer but add their own touches like Bernards soft voice. Hooks’ singing would not have been out of places in a Joy Division album.

Power, Corruption & Lies….I always felt that is was the record that truly found the band finding their true identity. Strong songs and flow really well into each other. It also redefined the way I saw music from then on.

Movement. It’s still the raw edge from losing Ian and a band trying to get back on their game. Not quite the post punk sound of Joy Divison, but not yet the electronic sound that would define New Order. It’s that album where they had the moment to pause and say “WTF now?”

Plus, it’s Hannett falling apart towards the end of his time as “the producer” at Factory.

Power, Corruption, and Lies. Found it in the bargain bin at the sadly missed Rough Trade shop in San Francisco, but it should’ve been up on the wall. The album where New Order finally and definitively stepped out from under the shadow of Joy Division as a great band in their own right.

There’s no clear cut answer to this question, but I’ll go with “Power Corruption & Lies”. That opening hook of “Age Of Consent”… the gorgeous “Your Silent Face”… and traces of “Movement” in “Ultraviolence”… great LP.

so let’s see… this is a tough one. my answer would be Technique. it was my first ever listen to this band, as til 1990 we didn’t have MTV, and there weren’t any radio stations playing that sort of thing where i was… they just slipped through the cracks! i picked it on a whim from one of those 10 CDs for a penny mail order companies as i was getting some Depeche and Cure i didn’t already have.
how to knock out some of the other albums from the race..?
well, i’d have to say that while half of the songs on P,C & L is brilliant, the other half are lacking… i also own the version without Blue Monday, so that doesn’t help out the track list. love love love Leave Me Alone, Your Silent Face, The Village, and Age of Consent though.
i do like Brotherhood a lot. Paradise, Bizarre Love Triangle, All Day Long and Every Little Counts are among N.O.’s best. however, a lot of the CD still sounds half finished, sloppy, muddy & muddled. the guitar tracks tend to get over-layered, something about the production just didn’t come together well for me there. also the lyrics and songs seem a bit less engaging than some of their others. so despite not having any awful songs, it’s abundance of semi-weak ones outweigh the gems.
Lowlife… oh Lowlife… i could argue that this album has some of their best work for sure. Love Vigilantes, This Time of Night, Sunrise and Elegia are perfect. i love how they are darker than even the Martin Hannet smothered first album. Sonner Than You Think is cute too. Face Up.. should have been re-worked. it’s really not worthy of the rest of the CD. the music on Subculture is great, but Bernard’s vocals totally suck compared to the version on Substance (which has not so great music, unfortunately.) The Perfect Kiss is amazing… in its entirety. the fade out version here is totally annoying, unless you’ve never heard the epicness of any other version of it! so that brings me to:

Technique. so getting the CD deaf and blind to the band, the cover was no help. no lyrics, no picture, nothing. so Fine Time comes on. what the heck is this?? if i hadn’t been a fan of the Art of Noise i wouldn’t have gotten through it, but their weirdness kept my ears open. the guitar pop songs on here are flawless- perfectly balanced between all the elements the band possess. All the Way, Love Less, Guilty Partner, and oh yes, Run. lyrically earnest, maybe the last of their albums you’d want to just sit and read all the lyrics to. great great guitar work on top of golden basslines. the simple keyboards fill in all the edges til the tracks are seamless. flipping the coin, Round and Round and Mr. Disco are amazing techno-dance tracks. in true N.O. tradition, they still manage to have a weight to them, and Peter Hook’s bass adds just that perfect touch (kiss?) of humanity to both. Vanishing Point is one of their best arranged tracks ever, the programming of drums and keyboards is superb. i race past that song to get to why Technique stays so high on the list. Dream Attack. this song is a great example of how the band were able to take their guitar songs and their electronic songs and bring them closer to each other, until you have one that is so grounded in both fields it’s hard to place it. this was also the last album where you got to hear Bernie cut loose on the guitar and really rock out. the ending guitar solo could not ever be long enough for me…

here’s the sad part. i wrote all that, just to think about the albums and magic they contain, and i don’t even want the vinyl, as i’d never get a chance to play it. :-) it would be a shame to win it and just look at the great art when someone else could be enjoying them. so good luck! Viva New Order!

ha- and i love the song Regret, but that album was pretty bad. i wish they’d continued producing their own stuff and not going outside the band so much!
and yes, Get Ready is also a good album, just because it rocks, and has Crystal on it. :-) but we seem to just be talking about the first few anyways, so whatever!

Low-Life: first New Order cuts I heard were Love Vigilantes and Subculture. Those songs turned me on to New Order and to the “modern music” that accompanied these tunes on my SLC radio dial. My fondness for these songs and the memories of discovering this whole new world of music through them makes Low-Life my favorite album.

Brotherhood
It’s the most “Punk” New Order album, with tons of energy, ideas and melodies. Also, “All Day Long” has the coolest synthesizer part ever. I <3 you Gillian Gilbert! Anyone who believes that they weren't making "albums" before Technique should listen to Brotherhood.

SUBSTANCE. The day of it’s release, I Ditched 9th Grade and stood outside The Wherehouse in Huntington Beach and waited for it to open to buy the album, I still have it and play it all the time, skips and all. Although, besides my personal reasons behind Substance, a close second is Power, Corruption & Lies is musically beautiful! Still and always be my favorite band.

My favorite New Order album is Brotherhood since it was the first New Order album I ever listen and ma me a fan forever – i borrowed the vinyl from a friend and had to buy another one for him since I almost worn his copy out.

It’s a very hard decision but I would say Technique. It’s an all-over-the-place yet solid album and 2 of my most favorite songs are on there, “Mr. Disco” and “Vanishing Point”. And I love the cover art so much that one day I will get it permanently on me, if I can stand it! Lots of detail on that cherub. ;-)

“Power, Corruption and Lies”. It’s got everything. The moodiness of JD, hints of electronic music, but still plenty of guitars, dancable, great to sing along to… Even the packaging is great – the classic photo with a modern twist. It’s perfect.

Low-life. The first New Order LP I was able to hear way back when in Manila, off a bootleg cassette with no cover and badly typewritten tracklisting. After getting my first taste off a friend’s 12″ for The Perfect Kiss, this was heavenly. I’m getting goosebumps recalling how it was to listen to the whole thing all the way thru for the first time.

Movement. One of the few albums I latched onto in my teens in the late 80’s that still affects me as strongly as it did then. Even though many argue that it’s the “least New Order New Order album”, sonically it’s the most interesting to me – despite the fact that they were just trying to figure out what to do next.

Technique. This was the first “new” New Order album I bought my freshman year in college. I was being exposed to so much interesting music and New Order was one of those bands that I knew of, knew a few songs but wasn’t really up to speed on. My roommates exposed me to all their older music and I was hooked! I felt like I became part of a secret club of “cool”! Every time I listen to this album I’m transported back to those younger days when everything was fresh, everything was new and the future was full of endless possibilities.

“Technique” is probably my favorite New Order album, although picking one is not an easy task. In terms of songwriting it’s probably the most accomplished, with each and every song being close to absolute perfection. Sonically, it was the juiciest combo of indie rock and acid house.

Much like committing to a favorite beer, there are just too many variables at play to choose a favorite New Order album. If I must choose one, I’d say Power, Corruption & Lies. You’ll never see this album rotting away on a thrift store shelf (sorry Herb Albert and Edgar Winters, not a jab at you)!

Not an easy question. And it’s been fun reading so many great answers from passionate fellow fans. After much internal debate and digging up memories, I am choosing “Low-Life.” It was “Low-Life” that launched my lifelong love of New Order. I was a freshman in high school, a new friend brought me a cassette, and on one side was “Low-Life,” the other side had a Cure album (the one with “Let’s Go To Bed”). Both sides of that cassette were life-changing, but it was “Low-Life” that stood out and hooked me. It’s a very vivid memory. I can still picture the writing on the cassette. And, of course, “Low-Life” has “Love Vigilantes,” “Elegia,” and “The Perfect Kiss.” I love the album for the amazing songs and memories.